Painting Old City Philadelphia: A Guide for Historic Property Owners

Old City is the oldest settled part of Philadelphia, and some blocks here hold buildings that were standing before the Revolution. Painting one of these homes is closer to caretaking than to a normal repaint. The materials are older and softer, the rules are stricter, and the details are worth protecting. It takes a contractor who slows down and works with the building instead of steamrolling it.

The Historical Commission Has a Say

Most of Old City sits inside a certified historic district, which means the Philadelphia Historical Commission has a say over what you do to the outside of the building. Before you repaint an exterior surface on a designated property, especially a color change on a street-facing facade, you may need Commission approval first. You can read how the district and the review process work on the Historical Commission's page.

Don't skip this. An unapproved color change on a facade can bring a fine and an order to repaint back to the original color, on your dime. Review also takes time, so if you're planning an exterior repaint for the summer, start the color conversation in early spring rather than the week before you want the crew to show up.

Federal-Era Brick Behaves Differently

Old City's colonial and Federal-style homes are mostly brick, and a lot of it is soft historic brick fired in a way that makes it far more porous than modern hard brick. That changes the rules:

Wavy Plaster and Original Sash Windows

Step inside an Old City home and you meet two things a modern painter can get wrong fast: original plaster and original wood sash windows.

The plaster is lath-and-plaster, a century or two old, and it's rarely flat. It waves, it carries hairline cracks, and it drinks paint unevenly if you don't prime it right. We use plaster-compatible primers and repair cracks properly instead of skimming over them, so the wall stays sound. Chasing it perfectly flat isn't always the goal, either, since some of that gentle wave is just the character of an old house.

The wood sash windows are original, single-glazed, and often painted over so many times they've stopped moving. They deserve care: freeing them up, prepping the old paint safely, and repainting the muntins and sashes by hand. Rebuilt right, they keep working another generation. This is also where lead usually lives.

Lead in the Old Layers

Any Old City home predates 1978 by a long way, so the older paint layers, especially on windows, doors, and trim, very likely contain lead. Disturbing that paint by sanding or scraping is regulated under the EPA's Renovation, Repair, and Painting rule. When a project means removing old lead-bearing paint, we coordinate with certified lead-abatement specialists for that prep rather than kicking the dust into the air. On a house this old, lead-safe prep isn't optional, it's the baseline.

Ironwork, Shutters, and Front Doors

Old City is known for its decorative ironwork: railings, fences, boot scrapers, window grilles. Iron done right means wire-brushing back to bare metal, priming with a rust inhibitor, and finishing in a direct-to-metal or oil enamel, then keeping an eye out for rust bleed in the shaded spots.

Front doors are where you get to have some fun inside the historic vocabulary. Deep, period-right colors like Federal blue, forest green, glossy black, and oxblood read beautifully against old brick and give the whole facade a lift. Shutters, where a house still has them, usually go a shade or two off the door so the two relate without matching exactly.

Interiors With the Period Intact

Many Old City buildings are now condos or offices that kept their bones: wide-plank floors, plaster walls, exposed brick, and original woodwork and trim. We work to highlight those details rather than bury them under thick, sloppy coats, and we match finishes to the age of the space.

Call Color House Painters at (215) 715-4647 to discuss your Old City project.